Co-designing across processor and logic domains can present a significant challenge for both embedded software engineers and logic designers. To take advantage of the embedded capabilities within the hardware, designers should learn how to properly utilize the Xilinx® Embedded Development Kit (EDK) and how to apply the best methodology to implement its functions.

With time, any design team can overcome these hurtles and successfully complete an embedded system. In the amount of time it takes for learning and training, the competition could release their product first. A productive and effective design team will enable you to ship to your customers before your competitors do.

The Embedded Processing QuickStart! solution delivers individualized service that includes a QuickStart! application engineer at your site for a week. This Xilinx expert will train your team on creating embedded systems and teach them how to optimize supporting FPGA features. The assistance provided will help your team exceed expectations and achieve desired design results.

Embedded Processing QuickStart! includes:

• Configuration of the Xilinx design environment
• An instructor-led embedded systems development course
• Design architecture/implementation consultation and guidance
• Guidance with system partitioning
• Initial design techniques to enable faster and more effective debug and verification
• A comprehensive training plan

These system components were once separate, discrete, and alone on the board. In the future, there will be a wave of programmable embedded platforms. Why not reunite the lonely CPU with some logic, block RAM, DSP, and connectivity? Instead of all of that functionality linked to a whole board, it can now be self-contained in a single device. The Xilinx embedded solution does not just help you for a single application; our solution will increase the system performance of all of your applications.

A CPU is better equipped to handle some functions than traditional FPGAs. A good example of this is arithmetic functions – CPUs are designed for this purpose. So why not let the processor do what it does best and leave the FPGA to concentrate on the tasks at which it excels? With the Xilinx embedded solution, you can do just that. By adding a processing solution to your design, you can create a more advanced system and provide more features to your customers.

Challenges
Customers are often reluctant to design with new technology because the time used for training is time not used for designing. The cost of using our flexible, scalable, powerful processing solution is time. And while you’re learning the features of our platform FPGA, your competitors are coming up to speed as well. If time to market is critical for you, the risk of your competitors successfully completing their projects before yours can be catastrophic.

The difference between a good design and a great design is time. The difference between a novice design team and a productive, proficient designing machine is simply time. Time yields experience and familiarity. If your team has experience and is comfortable designing with a new technology, they will finish faster. When they encounter obstacles, they will know what steps are needed to proceed.

Embedded Processing QuickStart! Features
With Embedded Processing QuickStart!, Xilinx provides one week of on-site assistance by a trained Xilinx applications engineer. Regardless of your team’s competence or skill level, the engineer will set up and customize EDK software for you.

Included during that week of on-site support is a two-day training course in embedded system development. The course covers the benefits of implementing an 8-bit PicoBlaze or a 32-bit MicroBlaze softprocessor core within the Spartan™-3 architecture, and highlights the advantages of the embedded IBM PowerPC core within Virtex™-II Pro and Virtex-4 FPGAs. With the Embedded Development Kit (EDK), you can create any of the combinations that fit your design specifications by applying the techniques taught in the training course.

After the two-day course, the engineer remains on site to assist the design team in transferring what they learned in the course to a practical design environment. Most engineering teams will have quite a few lingering questions after such an indepth course. With the trainer on-site for several days afterwards, these questions can be answered.

Another major feature of Embedded Processing QuickStart! is assistance with system partitioning. Some applications are better suited for a processor and others are better suited for FPGA fabric. To obtain optimum performance, your design team will be able to determine which functions to implement to logic and which functions should be executed by the CPU. This is critical for any embedded FPGA design. With proper hardware/software partitioning, your design can achieve superior performance.

The on-site engineer management leaves behind a training plan tailored specifically to the needs of your design team, which can include system partitioning, CPU programming, C programming, debugging, and verification. This plan helps prevent schedule slips later in the project by ensuring that your team is skilled in the required disciplines. It also helps maintain a more effective and highly motivated team that is properly equipped and confident to handle any obstacle.

Conclusion
Software engineers must design across logic domains and hardware engineers must learn how to design in the software domain. The effect of these challenges lengthens the development schedule and can affect time to market.

The Embedded Processing QuickStart! solution offers an unprecedented level of on-site design support and training for the critical initial design phase of your project. This service will not only show your team where to begin; it will also empower them to complete the project on time and on budget.

For more information about Embedded Processing QuickStart!, contact your Xilinx representative, or go to www.xilinx.com/epq/.

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